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It’s time for my monthly dividend update and I’m happy to report that I hit another personal best. June is a month when a lot of companies pay out dividends. With $91.94 in dividends, I came close to hitting the $100 mark. In fact, I thought I would cross $100 in June but NSRGY paid out in late May instead of early June like I anticipated. Here’s a breakdown of my June dividends.

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Time flies when you’re tracking dividends. It is hard to believe I’ve kept this blog going for two years now. I know it isn’t always the most exciting blog but it really keeps me on task to follow my investing progress. And who knows, my journey might inspire somebody else to work towards financial independence. While two years of blogging isn’t setting any records, I’ve seen several dividend and finance blogs come and go over the past two years. In honor of the anniversary, I’ll link back to my first blog post and also share this Warren Buffett quote from my first post:

“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”– Warren Buffet

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While I’ve spent countless hours reading and writing about dividend investing I’ve been making a costly mistake when it comes to investing in my children’s college education. With my eyes focused on my retirement accounts I’ve been blind to what’s been happening in my kids’ Educational Savings Accounts (ESA). Recently, I woke up from my ESA slumber and made some changes for the better.

Years ago, I opened Coverdell ESAs for my kids with USAA. Why USAA? Because that’s where I kept my checking, savings, and insurance products. I guess I was being lazy because it was convenient to keep my money at a one-stop shop. Until recently, I never realized how subpar the investing options were with USAA. Almost two years ago I discovered better brokerage services for my Roth IRA when I stopped funding my Roth with USAA and opened an account with Optionshouse. What I failed to recognize at the time was that my ESA accounts I had for my kids could also do better outside of USAA. Well, better late than never. I recently found a better ESA option by switching to Charles Schwab. Schwab has some great fee-free investment options that easily outperform the USAA mutual funds I was invested in. Also, the available USAA funds that were performing well had investment minimums which prevented me from putting my kids’ college investment in any of the decent USAA mutual funds. Luckily, I found Schwab and the minimum investment barriers were knocked down to a $1000 minimum.

Let’s compare the mutual fund I was using at USAA to the Schwab mutual fund I recently transferred my kids’ ESAs to.

Not only has the Schwab S&P 500 fund more than doubled the 10 year performance of the so-call moderately aggressive USAA fund, the Schwab fund’s expense is 1.09% less than USAA’s fund. A mistake like this could result in thousands of dollars of missed opportunities over time. Please learn from my mistake and do your homework when shopping ESAs.

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April 2016 dividends are in so it’s time to share my progress. April was a lackluster month but I still brought in $5 more than last year. This April I brought in $25.17 which brings my annual total so far to $150.88. Here’s a breakdown of my April dividends.

LOYAL3

Symbol

Dividend

KO

$4.46

NKE

$0.04

KHC

$1.32

WMT

$1.45

ROTH IRA

Symbol

Dividend

KHC

$6.69

PM

$5.48

MORL

5.73

TOTAL: $25.17

Looking ahead at May, I’m expecting another quiet month. Things will jump up again in June though. Thanks for stopping by!

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My monthly dividend update for March sets a new personal record. I really enjoy adding up my dividends each month and watching the numbers grow. While March was a record, it could have been better if COP hadn’t reduced its dividend. I understand nothing is guaranteed and I knew COP had some risk when I bought it because it didn’t have a long dividend track record like JNJ or KO. Other than the COP dividend cut, I’m pleased with my March dividends.

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February is coming to a close so it’s time to report my monthly dividends. In addition to monthly dividends, I also purchased some Valero Energy (VLO) stock. The addition of VLO should add approximately $18 to my 2016 annual dividends. Energy stocks are down and VLO was near a 52-week low so I decided to pick up some for my portfolio.

FEBRUARY DIVIDENDS

ROTH IRA

Symbol

Dividend

AAPL

$3.74

CLX

$5.57

PG

$0.70

PG

$5.44

MORL

$0.40

HCP

$5.62

LOYAL3

Symbol

Dividend

HAS

$0.49

SBUX

$0.10

TOTAL: $22.06

The $22.06 I received in February 2016 is almost $7.00 more than what I received in February 2015. While it is a small increase it is an increase nonetheless.